Lillie Tatum, helped found a decades-old social club

By RICK BADIE

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In the mid 1930s, the Atlanta Boys’ School had a social group for its charges. The Atlanta Girls’ School had no such thing.

Lillie Tatum was part of the group to change that. She and 11 classmates formed a social club called the “Zorakas.”

“It was pretty forward-thinking for their time,” said niece Mimi Nash of Johns Creek. “They thought they deserved equal attention.”

This club didn’t end after high school. The women continued to fellowship as adults. They took part in service projects and volunteered at nursing homes and donated to charity. They’d gather once a month at a member’s house to dine on a themed meal and dish out conversation.

As a child, Mrs. Nash remembers serving as hostess when the ladies met at Auntie Doris’s home.

“I was 10 or 12,” Mrs. Nash said. “They were lovely ladies of an era when women dressed up with their pretty Sunday clothes on.”

Even in advanced age, the Zorakas continued to meet well into the early 2000s. Children and relatives would ferry the senior women to get-togethers. Today, there are only five members left; three live in nursing homes.

And one just died.

The funeral for Lillie Doris Tatum of Decatur will be 2 p.m. Tuesday in the chapel of A.S. Turner & Sons, which is in charge of arrangements. She died Saturday at her home of natural causes. She was 92.

Ms. Tatum was an Atlanta native, the youngest of six children. Her siblings are deceased. She grew up in the Candler Park area and attended Mary Lin Elementary and Atlanta Girls’ High. After high school, she went right to work for Aetna Insurance Co., and was an underwriter there 44 years.

“She’d catch the trolley from her home in Decatur to Five Points for work,” Mrs. Nash said.

Ms. Tatum had several courtships, two of which were quite serious. She never married, though.

“She never took that step,” said niece Barbara Hazlewood of Dallas, Tex. “I don’t think she regretted it. She had a number of nieces and nephews. We were kind of her children.”

Mrs. Tatum played bridge until all the members of her club passed on. She enjoyed playing bingo in her condominium. She read the local newspaper daily and kept up with events local, national and international.

“Her mind was sharp till the very end,” said Mrs. Nash, “and for that we are grateful. She was active till the final few months of her life.”